For The Love of a Daughter
by paigee.yovkoff
Summary: iPod Challenge no. O9 - Ziva and Eli - 'The young Ziva David listened, her mother and father once again in a yelling match. She listened as they exchanged their curses and threats in her native tongue, having them forgotten that she was awake.'


**For The Love of a Daughter  
>Words: <strong>835**  
>Song: <strong>For The Love of a Daughter**  
>Artist:<strong> Demetria Devonne Lovato**  
>Pair: <strong>Eli David and Ziva David**  
>TV Show: <strong>NCIS**  
>Disclaimer: <strong>'For The Love of a Daughter' is performed by Demetria Devonne Lovato, it's from her new album 'Unbroken' which will be released on the 20th of September, and these two characters belong to David Bellisarious and Don McGill.**  
>AN: **There are some hints towards a possible Tiva relationship, but this fic is based on the relationship between Eli and Ziva, I love this song, and the moment I first heard it I thought about the relationship between Ziva and her father – in between the crying about how much this song is like my dad and I, as well…

…

_Four years old with my back to the door,__  
><em>_All I could hear was the family war.__  
><em>_Your selfish hands always expecting more.__  
><em>_Am I your child or just a charity award?_

The young Ziva David listened, her mother and father once again in a yelling match. She listened as they exchanged their curses and threats in her native tongue, having them forgotten that she was awake.

She did not understand the meaning of most of their words, but she knew it was about the same thing, once again. Ari had told her that her father – his step-father – had been 'promoted' in Mossad, leaving his no time at all with his family, not that he spent any with them to begin with.

It made her start to think that she and her baby sister never really meant anything to her father.

_You have a hollowed out heart,__  
><em>_But it's heavy in your chest.__  
><em>_I try so hard to fight it,__  
><em>_But it's hopeless, hopeless.__  
><em>_You're hopeless._

Ziva tried so hard to get to be with her father, but he never seemed to care. She tried so hard to get beyond his boundaries, but he would fight her.

She was beginning to think nothing mattered to him anymore, she most certainly didn't.

_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go.__  
><em>_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter._

Her mother screamed at him, again and again, as she threw the clothes of her two daughters into the on large suitcase.

He screamed at her in reply, telling her that she could not take a daughter that was his, but Ziva didn't feel like his daughter, no matter how much she was his.

Ziva clung to her mother as she took her and Tali from the man, she didn't regret leving with her mother.

_It's been 5 years, since we've spoken last,__  
><em>_And you can't take back what we never had.__  
><em>_I can be manipulated only so many times.__  
><em>_Before even "I love you" starts to sound like a lie._

She was nine, once she saw her father again.

Her mother was gone, she was dead, and she was never to be seen again.

Being in that house once more, living with her half-brother, younger sister and her father, brought too many memories back to the nine-year-old girl.

She didn't care what her father tried, she didn't want anything to do with him, and at such a young age, that was a lot to decide.

_You have a hollowed out heart,__  
><em>_But it's heavy in your chest.__  
><em>_I try so hard to fight it,__  
><em>_But it's hopeless, hopeless.__  
><em>_You're hopeless.___

_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go.__  
><em>_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter._

No matter how hard she tried to fight him to stop yelling at them, she could not do it.

He hadn't changed, not a bit, since her mother had taken her and Tali away.

He was the same man, that didn't care a bit for either of them, his job was the most important thing to him, and it was the only thing he could ever love.

_Don't you remember I'm your baby girl?__  
><em>_How could you push me out of your world?__  
><em>_Lied to your flesh and your blood__  
><em>_Put your hands on the ones that you swore you loved.__  
><em>_Don't you remember I'm your baby girl?__  
><em>_How could you throw me right out of your world?__  
><em>_So young when the pain had begun,__  
><em>_Now forever afraid of being loved._

There was so much diffferent with Ziva now.

She abandoned her father, before she could abandon her.

She started lieing to him about her relationship with her partner, so that she could have the space she wanted.

But she was still hs baby girl, she wanted him to remember that.

Everything he had said to her, to her mother, she kept that, all of the lies, making her think that she was never going to be loved, even with the voice of Anthony DiNozzo telling her that everytime he could.

_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_I'd love to leave you alone, but I can't let you go.__  
><em>_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_Oh father, please father__  
><em>_Put the bottle down for the love of a daughter.__  
><em>_For the love of a daughter_

She dreamt of it again – her mother and father endless fights, and that one time that he had taken a hand to her mother's face, and seeing it through a four-year-old's eyes, scared her everytime – waking up with beads of sweat on her face, and a worried lover beside her.

"Ziva?" Anthony whispered.  
>"It's nothing," she replied.<br>"Tell me."

No matter how hard she tried to fight it, she had to tell him, how much she wished it was different.

She wanted no more lying, no more secrets. She needed that much…

…

_I am freaking in love with this song. I have been listening to it non-stop since my best friend gave it to me._

_This all seems a bit weird to me, and as you can see it isn't really about Tony and Ziva, it's about Ziva and Eli. Tell me your thoughts…?_

_Review?_


End file.
